Birds in the News





Scientists Discover an Ancient Pattern Hidden in The Feathers of Birds

According to an analysis of hundreds of preserved bird specimens from museum collections around the globe, there's a specific set of feather rules behind the power of flight. These newly discovered rules allow scientists to better predict which dinosaurs could fly too. Examining wing feathers of 346 different species of birds from museums around the world, Field Museum of Natural History ornithologist Yosef Kiat discovered an interesting trend. From the tiniest hummingbird to the fiercest eagle, all flying birds had 9 to 11 asymmetrical flight feathers called primaries.But the number of primary feathers in flightless birds varied immensely. Emus lack them completely, while penguins fancy themselves up with 40.




Aldabra rail: The bird that came back from the dead by evolving twice. It lives off the southeast coast of Africa   Live Science - February 3, 2024

Why it's awesome: Lying off the southeast coast of Africa, north of Madagascar, the coral limestone islands of the Aldabra atoll are home to a humble yet astonishing bird that has evolved to be flightless twice. The Aldabra rail is rather unremarkable at first glance. It's about the size of a chicken, with a flecked gray back, a rusty red head and chest and a white throat. It is a subspecies of the white-throated rail (Dryolimnas cuvieri) and is the only living flightless bird in the Indian Ocean, thanks to human-driven extinction of birds like the dodo (Raphus cucullatus).




Bird Brains Can Sense Magnetic Fields With The Flick of a Switch   Science Alert - June 13, 2023

Migratory birds can sense the planet's magnetic field might experience a similar irritation as being micromanaged.




Extinct 'Lord of The Rings' eagles had a 10-foot wingspan and probably could have carried a hobbit   Live Science - March 20, 2023

In ancient hulk of an eagle that once soared over Australia shares similarities with the fictional giant eagles from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy epic "The Lord of the Rings," a new study on the extinct raptors shows. While the real-life giants weren't as enormous as their fictional counterparts (and almost definitely couldn't be ridden by a wizard), they were probably hefty enough to pick up hobbit-size prey with their colossal talons.




How Did Birds Get Wings? We May Have Found The 'Missing Link' in Dinosaur Fossils   Science Alert - February 28, 2023

Dinosaur fossils featuring arms with a suspect bend at the elbow and wrist could hint at the presence of an unpreserved tendon that underpins all modern avian flight. The evolution of wings powerful enough to lift a vertebrate off the ground is one of the greatest mysteries in paleontology. Pterosaurs are famous for being the earliest known vertebrates to achieve true lift-off nearly 200 million years ago. Yet these massive ancient reptiles weren't dinosaurs, leaving the direct ancestors of birds to figure out the whole flying business all on their own. Avian dinosaurs would only evolve much later from two-footed, feathered theropods - 80 million years or more after pterosaurs had already achieved powered flight.




Scientists are trying to resurrect the dodo centuries after the bird famously went extinct   PhysOrg - January 31, 2023

The list of extinct species that genetic engineering company Colossal wants to bring back to life is growing. The latest addition: the dodo. Colossal gave life to real-world visions of Jurassic Park in 2021 with its mission of bringing back the wooly mammoth. In August 2022, the company, which has offices in Boston, Dallas and Austin, Texas, said it also planned to de-extinct the Australian thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger. The new project, announced Tuesday, would bring back a species that's historically highlighted as a case of how humans can contribute to the extinction of an animal species. The list of extinct species that genetic engineering company Colossal wants to bring back to life is growing. The latest addition: the dodo.




This Ancient Creature Is a Bizarre Hybrid of Dinosaur And Bird   Science Alert - January 5, 2023





Fossilized fragments of a skeleton, hidden within a rock the size of a grapefruit, have helped upend one of the longest-standing assumptions about the origins of modern birds   Science Daily - November 30, 2022
One of the key skull features that characterizes 99% of modern birds - a mobile beak - evolved before the mass extinction event that killed all large dinosaurs, 66 million years ago. This finding also suggests that the skulls of ostriches, emus and their relatives evolved 'backwards', reverting to a more primitive condition after modern birds arose.




Birds Use Earth's Magnetic Field For 'Stop Signs' When They Migrate   Science Alert - January 30, 2022

Thanks to a combination of sensing the Earth's magnetic field through vision and an in-built compass that allows them to orient themselves according to magnetic intensity, migratory birds don't have much trouble finding their way.




Bird watchers in Massachusetts have been given an early Christmas present in the form of an incredibly rare sighting Ð a Steller's sea eagle, which is native to Asia almost 8,000 km (5,000 miles) away   Science Alert - December 22, 2021


The large sea eagles are native to the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia, and also seen in Japan, China, and Korea. There are estimated to be only around 5,000 individuals left, including this one, which has somehow made its way to the Taunton river in Massachusetts.




Birds Have a Mysterious 'Quantum Sense'. For The First Time, Scientists Saw It in Action   Science Alert - January 8, 2021


Seeing our world through the eyes of a migratory bird would be a rather spooky experience. Something about their visual system allows them to 'see' our planet's magnetic field, a clever trick of quantum physics and biochemistry that helps them navigate vast distances.




Crows Are Capable of Conscious Thought, Scientists Demonstrate For The First Time   Science Alert - September 28, 2020


New research into the minds of crows has revealed a jaw-dropping finding: the canny corvids aren't just clever - they also possess a form of consciousness, able to be consciously aware of the world around them in the present. In other words, they have subjective experiences. This is called primary, or sensory, consciousness, and it had only previously been demonstrated in primates - which means we now may have to rethink our understanding of how consciousness arises, in addition to reconsidering the avian brain.




Ancient bird bones redate human activity in Madagascar by 6,000 years   PhysOrg - September 12, 2018


Analysis of bones, from what was once the world's largest bird, has revealed that humans arrived on the tropical island of Madagascar more than 6,000 years earlier than previously thought




Elephant birds: Who killed the largest birds that ever lived?   BBC - September 13, 2018


Prehistoric humans are under suspicion of wiping out the largest birds that ever lived after fossilized bones were discovered with telltale cut marks. According to scientists, it's evidence that the elephant birds of Madagascar were hunted and butchered for food. The remains have been dated to about 10,000 years ago. Until now, the first settlers were thought to have arrived on the island about 2,500 to 4,000 years ago.




Scientists crack mystery behind shape of bird eggs   PhysOrg - August 23, 2018


The study has discovered the reason why guillemot eggs have such a peculiar shape - a mystery that has been puzzling biologists for hundreds of years. Guillemots lay and incubate their single egg on bare cliff ledges close to the sea, which led scientists and nature enthusiasts to believe that the egg's pointed shape had evolved to help it roll in an arc - thus keeping it from the cliff edge should it become dislodged. However, Professor Birkhead, who has been studying the behavior of guillemots, puffins and razorbills on Skomer Island in Wales for almost 50 years, has discovered that the egg's shape has evolved in order to keep the egg in place and prevent it from rolling away in the first place.




From dinosaurs to birds
Baby bird fossil is 'rarest of the rare'   BBC - March 5, 2018


The chick lived 127 million years ago and belonged to a group of primitive birds that shared the planet with the dinosaurs. Fossils of birds from this time period are rare, with baby fossils seen as "the rarest of the rare". Scientists say the discovery gives a peek into the lives of the ancient, long-extinct birds that lived between 250 and 66 million years ago.




Scientists are stunned by this bird's feathers, which are so black they absorb 99.9% of light   BGR - January 10, 2018


In short, evolution has given the birds the blackest of black feathers. With such impressive darkness surrounding its bright blue plumage, the birds appear almost alien in their mating dances, and that's apparently just what the females of the species are looking for.




Pigeons can discriminate both space, time   Science Daily - December 4, 2017
Pigeons aren't so bird-brained after all. New research shows that pigeons can discriminate the abstract concepts of space and time, likely using a different region of the brain than humans and primates to do so.




'Sooty birds' reveal hidden US air pollution   BBC - October 10, 2017
Soot trapped in the feathers of songbirds over the past 100 years is causing scientists to revise their records of air pollution. US researchers measured the black carbon found on 1,300 larks, woodpeckers and sparrows over the past century. They've produced the most complete picture to date of historic air quality over industrial parts of the US. The study also boosts our understanding of historic climate change. Black carbon, a major component of soot, is created through the incomplete burning of fossil fuels such as coal. The dirty air generated as a result became a major problem as industrialization expanded across Europe and the US at the end of the 19th century.




New evidence on how birds took to the air   BBC - October 10, 2017
New fossil evidence has pushed back a key step in the evolution of bird flight by millions of years. Skeletal changes that helped birds take to the air happened 120 million years ago, during the hey day of dinosaurs, according to a specimen from China. Features such as fused bones were thought to be present only in relatively advanced birds, living just before the dinosaurs went extinct. A strong, rigid skeleton is part of the blueprint of modern birds. The bird, Pterygornis dapingfangensi, lived in north-eastern China during the Early Cretaceous. It is only the second of its kind to be discovered and is exquisitely preserved. The find ''pushed back the date for these birds' features by over 40 million years,'' said co-researcher, Min Wang from the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.




How did dinosaurs evolve beaks and become birds? Scientists think they have the answer   PhysOrg - September 28, 2017
Once you know that many dinosaurs had feathers, it seems much more obvious that they probably evolved into birds. But there's still a big question. How did a set of dinosaurian jaws with abundant teeth (think T. rex) turn into the toothless jaws of modern birds, covered by a beak? Two things had to happen in this transition, suppression of the teeth and growth of the beak. Now new fossil evidence has shown how it happened.




Scientists track the brain-skull transition from dinosaurs to birds   Science Daily - September 11, 2017
The dramatic, dinosaur-to-bird transition that occurred in reptiles millions of years ago was accompanied by profound changes in the skull roof of those animals -- and holds important clues about the way the skull forms in response to changes in the brain -- according to a new study. It is the first time scientists have tracked the link between the brain's development and the roofing bones of the skull.




How dinosaurs evolved into birds - Scientists reveal how incredible transition 100 million years ago saw profound changes to animals' skulls   Daily Mail - September 11, 2017
The transition of dinosaurs to birds began around 100 million years ago, and a new study suggests that the changes during this time went well beyond the growth of feathers. New research indicates that the transition was also accompanied by profound changes to those animals' skulls. The findings hold important clues about the way the skull forms in response to changes in the brain, according to the researchers.




Secret life of the dodo revealed   BBC - August 24, 2017
Scientists are piecing together clues about the life of the dodo, hundreds of years after the flightless bird was driven to extinction. Few scientific facts are known about the hapless bird, which was last sighted in 1662. A study of bone specimens shows the chicks hatched in August and grew rapidly to adult size. The bird shed its feathers in March revealing fluffy grey plumage recorded in historical accounts by mariners.




Pigeons can learn to distinguish real words from non-words   PhysOrg - September 19, 2016
Pigeons can learn to distinguish real words from non-words by visually processing their letter combinations. The researchers found that pigeons' performance was on a par with that previously reported in baboons for this type of complex task. Their study is the first to identify a non-primate species as having "orthographic" abilities.




Birds engage in all types of sleep in flight, but in remarkably small amounts   Science Daily - August 3, 2016
For the first time, researchers have discovered that birds can sleep in flight. They measured the brain activity of frigatebirds and found that they sleep in flight with either one cerebral hemisphere at a time or both hemispheres simultaneously. Despite being able to engage in all types of sleep in flight, the birds slept less than an hour a day, a mere fraction of the time spent sleeping on land. How frigatebirds are able to perform adaptively on such little sleep remains a mystery.




Dodo Birds Weren't 'Dodos' After All   Live Science - February 24, 2016


Dodos weren't as dumb as their reputation suggests. New research finds that these extinct, flightless birds were likely as smart as modern pigeons, and had a better sense of smell. Dodos (Raphus cucullatus) had gone extinct by 1662, less than 100 years after their island home of Mauritius became a destination for Dutch explorers. The birds, unfamiliar with humans, were initially fearless. This made them easy pickings for hunters and also cemented their reputation as dullards. A new computed tomography (CT) scan of a rare, intact dodo skull reveals that these birds had brain-to-body sizes that are similar to those of modern pigeons.




Images: How the Bird Beak Evolved   Live Science - May 12, 2015


s Researchers reverted the beaks of chicken embryos into Velociraptor-like snouts. Here's a look at the chicken experiment and results. The dinosaur-nosed chicken embryos revealed that simple genetic tweaks might have led to the development of beaks in the ancestors of birds. In fact, such anatomic changes are seen in an extinct relative of modern birds - The 85-million-year-old Hesperornis bird (shown here) has the first-known modern beak and palate. Hesperornis was discovered by the great Yale paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh in the middle of the 1800s.




Cranky Parrots & Warty Pigeons Among Mauritius' Extinct Creatures   Live Science - May 7, 2015


The dodo bird was not the only wacky animal inhabitant of the island of Mauritius: Bad-tempered parrots, wart-faced pigeons and several other now-extinct but noteworthy indigenous animals called this land home, new research suggests. Historians had previously identified the animals that lived on the island before Dutch settlers arrived in the 17th century, but the details about these creatures had remained largely unknown.




Feathery fossils peg early birds to even earlier date   BBC - May 6, 2015

Scientists in China have described a new species of early bird, from two fossils with intact plumage dating to 130 million years ago. Based on the age of the surrounding rocks, this is the earliest known member of the clade that produced today's birds: Ornithuromorpha. It pushes back the branching-out of this evolutionary group by at least five million years. The little bird appears to have been a wader, capable of nimble flight.





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